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Gather valid information about the nature of the client system and to prepare an analysis of that data for delivery to the client during feedback.

Ordering of methods

(a) unstructured observation, including examination of documents offered by the client; (b) individual interviews; (c) group interviews, if they are used; (d) questionnaires, ideally with item content determined organically from the results of Steps a, b, and c; and (e) specific documents requested by the consultant, if necesary.

Qualitative and Quantitative

The more qualitative data are used, the more clients are encouraged to search for their own explanations, and the more quantitative data are used, the more the data themselves are likely to shape conclusions about the system.

Close

The consultant has obtained and analyzed systematicdata about the client system.

Feedback

Primary Objectives

Promote increased understanding of the clientsystem by its members.

Content

data analysis prepared at the close of the data collection phase.

Process

Composition of feedback meetings (i.e., who is present with whom), the ordering of the meetings (i.e., which groups receive information first, which second, etc.), the behavior of the client system during feedback, and the behavior of the consultants within and between feedback meetings.

Feedback is the time for theconsultant to be giving to the client system. The feedback process should always leave the client system with some record of the consultant's analysis.

Entry

Paradox

although it provides one of the best opportunities to observe organizational dynamics, it does so under relatively poor conditions.

Primary Objectives

Determine which units of the system (individual, group, and organization) will participate in the diagnosis and to determine whether the client and consultant can reach agreement about their respective roles during data collection and feedback.

Close

entry, the consultant should have a reasonably well-developed idea of what will be necessary to understand the client system. They use a contract letter covering all those elements.

Purpose

Establish a widely shared understanding of a system and, based on that understanding, to determine whether change is desirable

Each step in the diagnosis depends on an effective working relationship between client and consultant. If properly executed, the methods described here are self-correcting because each phase provides opportunities to discover and to alter limitations of the preceding phases.